Jessica Rhodes is the founder and President of Entrepreneur Support Services Inc. (ESS), a virtual assistant firm offering a variety of client support and graphic design services to busy entrepreneurs. ESS is the parent company to the wildly popular podcast guest booking firm, InterviewConnections.com. Jessica is the host of the hit weekly web TV show, Interview Connections TV, where she brings expert tips and advice to podcasters and great guest experts. Her podcast, Rhodes to Success, publishes weekly interviews with content and relationship marketers.

In this episode we talk about:

What Jessica Rhodes has managed to achieve as a result of having a podcast?

How podcasting has changed Jessica’s life?

The reason she started a podcast.

Building relationships with people through podcasting.

How she discovered that podcasting is an amazing way to build connections?

How podcasting helped her to learn more about herself and helped to improve her verbal communicatio

Learning how to be a better speaker and have better conversations with people.

Going back to her first interview.

How she learned a lot from other people about feeling comfortable on her own show by going to conferences?

How she really wanted to podcast and decided to start right away?

Business karma.

The two types of entrepreneur.

The beauty of podcasting for connecting with someone and having a great conversation.

The engagement she has with her audience.

The number of people who love Jessica’s show.

The importance of being engaged in a topic that makes the listeners interested.

How she became a much better interviewer and a better podcaster?

The key to a good podcast.

Getting better and better after 50 episodes.

The importance of putting emphasis on engagement and connection.

Keeping the show going and enjoying it.

The disadvantages of creating a podcast.

The importance of having faith that it’s going to work.

Jessica’s weekly workflow that she would recommend.

The importance of creating shows more than once a week.

How she makes money out of podcasting?

The importance of growing her business and how it’s not just about making money?

Taking the time to work hard, invest, and take risks in order to make it work and have a successful business online.

Creating a really great show in making money out of podcasting.

Podcasting as the number one strategy to bring in more clients.

What’s A Good Podcast Download Number?

How often should I podcast?

“I do the weekly show because that is the workflow that I can handle and I also think it’s a good frequency. I guess I would recommend the weekly format. If you’re going to do a show for three or five days a week, make sure you can handle that and don’t just do that for a couple of months because it’s going to get you more downloads but then it means you’re going to burn out. Make sure that if you’re going to do it, do it more than once a week and make sure that’s something that you can handle.”

How complicated is it to do a podcast?

“It’s really hard to start a podcast unless you already have experience in broadcasting or in speaking and stuff like that. It’s kind of hard to start a podcast and automatically be totally comfortable and conversational. I definitely remember feeling really stiff and kind of following a script. Yes, I was definitely really stiff but I’ve really really loosened up. Just by learning from other people; I’ve learned a lot from going to the conferences and hearing tips and stuff and just getting comfortable in my own show.”

What are the most important things to consider in podcast download?

“I personally got to the point where I really didn’t care about the download. I put so much more emphasis on the engagement and connection. I stopped doing episodes that were what I thought the show needed and I started just doing episodes and interviewing people that I was interested in personally. Like, I really want to have a conversation with that person.”

“I realised that when I’m really interested in a topic, it comes across in a conversation, it makes a better interview and my listeners are more interested in it because I’m engaged.”

“I think the key to a good podcast is that you need to do what you want or else it’s not going to be very good because you’re not going to be interested in it.”

“If people are stopping because the downloads are not going the way they want them to, or they don’t see the result – listen, if you are enjoying it, and if you’re having a good time, if it’s letting you up inside, if it’s something that you really like, you should not care if there’s one person downloading your show. You should keep doing it and I think that’s the cool thing about podcasting.”

Which podcast should I follow, why and how often?

“I’m going to name a couple of shows that I’m really digging right now. So, WTF, Marc Maron’spodcast. I love that show. I think he is such a fabulous interviewer. He interviewed Jason Segel, the actor, and it was so good. Michael Hyatt’s podcast and the Slate’s parenting podcast, Mom And Dad Are Fighting.”